Doris Fleeson 

Kansas Women

36” x 48”

Oil on Linen    

“Damn the cliches. Full verbs ahead”

Doris Fleeson was born in Sterling Kansas on May 20th, 1901. She graduated from Sterling High in 1918, and proceeded into the University of Kansas graduating with a degree in journalism in 1923. During her time at KU, Fleeson was a correspondent for the University Daily Kansan, and her first newspaper job was with the Pittsburg Kansas Sun.

Fleeson then became a member of newspaper staffs in both Evanston, Illinois, and Long Island, New York, and by age 26, obtained a position at the New York Daily News. Her path into the male dominated newsrooms of the 20’s was steady and persevering.

Within a few years, she became acquainted with Gov. Franklin D. Roosevelt, and later Fleeson was sole permanent woman member of the press entourage who accompanied President Roosevelt on his campaign tours.

As strong willed, competitive achiever, Doris Fleeson redefined the role of women in daily Newspapers.

Married and divorced and remarried, a European war correspondent, a syndicated political columnist, producing perhaps 5,500 columns over the next 22 years. Doris Fleeson moved as a great force throughout her career.

By the time Fleeson went into semi-retirement in 1967, her twice-a-week column was distributed by United Features Syndicate, Inc., to 90 newspapers. Her reporting over the years earned her a number of awards and citations.

“I belonged to the ‘who the hell reads the second paragraph’ school of journalism” Fleeson sometimes said.